WOULD you have both of your breasts removed if you find out you are genetically predisposed to have breast cancer, even if you do not have signs you have cancer at the moment? That was exactly what famous actress Angelina Jolie chose to do, as she disclosed via an op-ed article in The New York Times.
After finding out through genetic testing that she carried a genetic mutation that increased her odds of developing breast cancer to 87 percent, and ovarian cancer to 50 percent, Jolie had a double mastectomy and is due for surgery that will remove her ovaries as well.
Angelina Jolie lost her mother Marcheline Bertrand to ovarian cancer in 2007 when Bertrand was just 56. Now a mother herself to three young kids with actor Brad Pitt, and to three other kids they adopted, Jolie made the same decision as 36 percent of women in the United States who had the same genetic predisposition. They all chose to have preventive double mastectomy.
“I can tell my children that they don’t need to fear they will lose me to breast cancer,” wrote Jolie. “They know that I love them and will do anything to be with them as long as I can.”
As Time Magazine reported, Jolie’s doctor estimates that Angelina’s cancer risk fell from 87 percent high to just 5 percent.
“Once I knew that this was my reality, I decided to be proactive and minimize the risk as much as I could,” Jolie wrote. “I hope other women can benefit from my experience,” she explained, while talking to “12 percent of all women who will one day develop breast cancer and the 100 percent of women who worry about it.”
The choice Jolie made became very significant to many people around the world because her celebrity status has been anchored on her beauty and sex appeal.
This addresses a very personal concern most women have when they had to have their breast(s) and/or ovaries surgically removed.
While the rational mind fully comprehends how the procedure can help save their life along with other methods of treatment, the female psyche mourns the imminent loss of a part(s) of their bodies which define their femininity, sexuality and even their reason for being.
On this issue, Jolie intimated: “I do not feel any less of a woman…I feel empowered that I made a strong choice that in no way diminishes my femininity.”
As Time Magazine reported, Jolie had successful reconstructive surgery.
Breast reconstruction is achieved “through several plastic surgery techniques that attempt to restore a breast to near normal shape, appearance and size following mastectomy.”
The American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) say: Although breast reconstruction can rebuild your breast, the results are highly variable:
-A reconstructed breast will not have the same sensation and feel as the breast it replaces.
-Visible incision lines will always be present on the breast, whether from reconstruction or mastectomy.
-Certain surgical techniques will leave incision lines at the donor site, commonly located in less exposed areas of the body such as the back, abdomen or buttocks.
But ASPS points out that this procedure helps those who need it and choose to have it “become whole again.”
While many people hail Jolie for helping raise important issues about genes, health and risks through her star power, conspiracy theories have also been interjected in the international dialogue to knock down the imminent “Angelina Effect.”
Naturalnews.com published that it “has learned it all coincides with a well-timed for-profit corporate PR campaign that has been planned for months and just happens to coincide with the upcoming US Supreme Court decision on the viability of the BRCA1 patent.”
The article points out “the corporate financial ties, investors, mergers, human gene patents, lawsuits, medical fear mongering and the trillions of dollars that are at stake,” and that “if you pull back the curtain on this one, you find far more than an innocent-looking woman exercising a ‘choice.’”
Conspiracy theorists allege that Angelina Jolie is but part of the big scheme of corporate America, and that “this is about protecting trillions in profits through the deployment of carefully-crafted public relations campaigns designed to manipulate the public opinion of women.”
I, personally, would not second guess Angelina Jolie’s intention in coming out and sharing, with the public, the choices she made when it comes to her health.
I laud her for using her celebrity to help women become more informed about our health and the treatment options that are now available to us.
There is no magic cure that will give us a 100 percent success rate but if it lowers our risk in developing cancer, then I think we should welcome all discussions that will help us make an informed decision.
This is our body. Our family life and the years we can still enjoy with our husband and our children are at stake here. However other people may weigh in on Angelina Jolie’s choice and her effect on women’s opinion, if we end up on the same crossroads that she has been, it will still be our own choice that will matter.
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Gel Santos Relos is the anchor of TFC’s “Balitang America.” Views and opinions expressed by the author in this column are are solely those of the author and not of Asian Journal and ABS-CBN-TFC. For comments, go to www.TheFil-AmPerspective.com, https://www.facebook.com/Gel.Santos.Relos
